It’s about that time when when days off mean more time shredding the slopes — or at least trying to mitigate arse-bruising. But before you go, take a look at the thing that will carry you down the hill. That simple board has 45 years of engineering and optimisation built into it — all so we can do crazy things with piles of snow. More »
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From the looks of this video, while it’s technically possible to craft a snowboard out of two Apple PowerBooks, you’re probably better off buying the real thing (or investing a little more in newer unibody models). More »
Snowboards are basically sticks. Lib-tech’s rocker-shaped bottoms and magne-traction edges are changing things up through tech and design for one of the most fun rides I’ve ever experienced.
The folks at Cheetah Ultra Sports dedicated the last four years to hand-crafting a snowboard so perfect, it carves one-of-a-kind lines, impresses fellow riders, and bleeds your bank account dry—all in a single run.
There’s only five more sleeps until the Australian snow season kicks off, and even though a quick check of the NSW resort’s snow cams shows that there isn’t too much of the powdery white stuff on the ground at the moment, it’s still shaping up to be an awesome year in the “alps”. Why, you ask? Because this year, there’s an awesome new gadget to track your runs using a combination of GPS and GPRS technology.
It’s called Flaik, and last Friday it walked away with the top prize at the Australian International Design Awards.
What you are seeing here is two grown men riding a 2.9 metre XJ-13 two-people snowboard. Why? Because they can, and have an intimate desire to a) look stupid, b) appear in the media looking stupid, c) wear fur coats and hats while sticking their tongues out. Doesn’t it seem stupid to you? It will after you see it in action, including the ride with the three-people at the end of the video.
io9 found this great concept by Danish design architects BIG which places a hotel against the side of a mountain with the idea that hotel patrons can finish off a ski or snowboard run by riding directly to their floor. The hotel looks absolutely epic, and I like the way the wavy lines of the hotel match the tracks left on snow by skis and snowboards. [BIG via io9]
Say you’re Brian Lam, out there on the slopes of Tahoe, snowboarding as your iPhone drops the biggest beats since the Propellerheads’ dropped Decksanddrumsandrockandroll. It sounds grand, but there’s a logistical problem: You have goggles, plus the earmuffs your mum knitted for you, plus your (definitely not white) earbuds, all connected to your head using different straps, levers and pulleys. Von Zipper combines them all into one easy system: the US$20 Snow Muffs/H-Phones will attach to most ski goggles—but particularly those that Von Zipper by coincidence also sells, for US$60 to $160. [Product Page via Book of Joe]
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Winter is coming and it’s just about time to hit the slopes, but are you having trouble deciding between downhill skiing and snowboarding? The Venom Switchboard is a cross between the two, and adds an aluminium steering bar for even greater control. This vehicle looks like it mixes together just the right amount of danger and thrills, and it’s not all that expensive, either. More »
